Be With You
by Val-Creative
Summary: They made a pact. And after ten years, she intends to use it. DannySam. Oneshot. Updated June21th
1. 1

_Be With You_

_Took me 3 hours and however many minutes to conjure this up. On impulse again. If you like a little senseless DannySam goodness and a little angst wrapped up in a nice little oneshot, you've come to the right story. The subject is a bit touchy in the story, I know, and I may have some errors floating around, I'm not entirely sure. Fact is I finished this at 12:43 at night...so sue me I'm a little rusty. It's an alright story for something made in 3 hours, didn't turn out the way I wanted but eh, what are you gonna do?I thought I'd share it with you! I hope you like it, and as always, review if you please. Much appreciated._

_Disclaimer: Danny Phantom belong to Butch Hartman. Not moi._

* * *

A sticky summer day declined overhead. 

On Tuesday afternoon, one of the most humid afternoons for children to play outdoors, within the gates of Bartlett Day Care, Danny Fenton asked Sam Manson for her lollipop when the playground bully stole his and smashed it into the hot blacktop.

She had only unwrapped the paper and handed it over under the premises that one day; he would return a favor to her.

The four-year-old with the droopy purple pigtail braids smirked in a manner she thought was superior, reminding young Danny exactly why he didn't like girls, but dutifully crunched and sucked on the strawberry prize.

A span of many years lapsed between the two children, tricycles were sold at garage sales, size five shoes were outgrown, middle school was no more then a painful sequence of events they didn't plan on looking back at, and Danny and Sam became inseparable so to speak. A lot of the kids at Casper High rarely saw these two alone; one of them would either be tagging along with the future Bill Gates, Tucker Foley.

After the fourth quarter of their freshmen year, Sam disappeared for a week. When she returned around the last day of school, she returned looking devastated beyond any of her two best friend's knowledge.

News leaked out one way or another. Leukemia.

Sam was dying.

The sentence stopped Daniel Fenton's heart cold in his chest. Of course her parents would spare no expense on helping their daughter recover but money wouldn't save her. He knew people died, he knew the young died. But not his friends. Not _Sam_. The girl who never cried in front of him, even when they were made to watch a particularly gruesome documentary about the slaughtering of innocent creatures for harvest, the only girl he knew who could play football without complaining about her hair or clothes getting dirty. He had to admit, Sam looked cute with a little smudge of mud on her cheek.

She was the definition of invincible. And he was a hero but he couldn't save her from this beast. There was no ghost to suck into the Fenton Thermos, nothing physical to beat, no villain. He was useless to her.

Absolutely worthless.

_**--DS--**_

Storm clouds rumbled lowly in the distance. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, the young girl relived her favorite dream.

_---took her in his arms. Arms that were thin but strong joined with hands that crossed over her shoulders, feather-light. His lips lowered to her ear, hot puffs of air sent electrifying shocks down her spine. When her body quivered with that electricity, she let out a weak moan and pressed her back against his chest. With one wet kiss just below her right earlobe, she was powerless to his control. A satisfied laugh came from his throat and he smiled against the kiss he placed on her shoulder blade. She was his…and only his…_

Vague knock on her glass window. One loud, two softer.

The window slide open an inch or two, she could tell from where she laid, and a husky breath asked, "Sam? Sam, are you awake?"

"I am now," she replied, sitting up as Danny crawled in from the old oak tree in the back, halfheartedly she was surprised he still remembered which branch was the stable one and which wasn't, and at one in the morning no less. The bedroom door was already locked so Sam got up simply to draw the curtains shut and turn on a lamp. Her best friend slipped off his windbreaker and seated himself on the end of her black sheeted mattress as she sat across from him at her headboard. She didn't have to inquire an explanation to why he was there; they had been past that stage since seventh grade.

Ice blue examined her décor; it gave him a terrible shiver to associate black with the inevitable.

_No_…he couldn't think that…….he wasn't going to let that happen…..

Meanwhile, Sam sleep-mussed in her baggy purple pajamas, baggy to hide her colored disfigurations, stared down at her coverlet and picked at a stray thread on her arm sleeve, uncomfortably aware of what he was probably thinking about at that moment.

Up through her thin lashes, she found that he had changed from his everyday school clothes to something more comfortable, a navy hoodie and sweats, and had with him his keys attached to that lame Florida keychain she gave him as an apology for missing his baseball game for a short vacation at Cocoa Beach at eight. He twirled it around his index finger nervously.

Danny jumped slightly when a pair of cool hands touched his sheepishly, and his insides stirred when a pair of warm violet ticked in his direction, "Easy there, I'm not going to hurt you. Despite what some people believe."

When he didn't react, her soft mouth twisted up into a scowl, "It's like I'm contagious or something."

Tan quietly closed over ivory.

"But you are."

Sam frowned at him, upon seeing his mischievous smirk, she decided to let the crack slid, knowing he was doing no harm. Rather she was glad he could at least joke unlike Tucker who had broken down at the prospect of his friend's possible demise. Danny changed the subject, catching a glimpse of a dark emotion in bright purple, "How are you feeling? Any better?"

Her symptoms wasn't what she wanted to talk about; there was only one topic that needed to be crossed. The sooner she waited, the harder it would be to bring up.

"Sam?"

She must have been thinking too deeply because Danny had noticed her troubled far away expression and leaned over from his end. What brought her back to reality was not his whisper but the shock of warm flesh touching her cold face. Astonishment glowed visible in her features and he dropped his hand, the area he had touched with his palm began to redden.

"Sam?"

"I went to the hospital today."

He nodded, numbness creeping over him at the mention of the word. Sam released a shaky breath she had been holding in for a while and chose not to clutch his hand but instead get a fistful of blanket for consolation, "There might be a treatment to cure me."

She said to the immediate relief in his eyes, "It's not a guarantee so don't hang onto a false hope Danny. It's a bone marrow transplant and there's only one other person on this side of Illinois who comes closest to matching me."

'_If it's Dash….I swear…..'_

Dread dripping from his voice, he questioned, "Who is it?"

"...Do you remember Morton?"

One of his black eyebrows quirked, "The playground bully?"

"On Susan Anthony's birthday everyone got a treat and Morton broke yours on the playground when we went outside."

"What about it Sam?"

Violet narrowed seriously, "There's no easy way for me to approach this but we made a pact then. In exchange for me doing a favor to you one day you do return it to me. I know it's stupid, comparing a lollipop to a body part bu---"

Two fingers pushed against her mouth to stop her. Danny's face scrunched up mildly in outrage, he declared, "You don't even have to ask me." Sam heartbeat picked up heavily until he confirmed lowly with less anger, "I'm your match, aren't I?"

Sam croaked, "Yeah…" A veil of moisture fell over her eyes and she let it burn as punishment for her weakness, refusing to let anything show, she would never cry in front of him, if she showed weakness, asking him might go in vain. And she had never asked anything from him before, damned pride.

He started shaking his head slowly, almost in hesitancy, "Sometimes Sam, I think you're just too good to be true. Sometimes I want to shake you andI know I need it from time to time. But never, _never_ feel that you need to ask for something like that from me. Okay?"

Though no tears were spilling, Sam fell into a total state of emotional dependences, latching onto her nearest source of comfort. Literally. With his boyish arms wrapped around her back, she burrowed her body closer to his, pressing her dry face into his hoodie. Danny tried to sooth her slight trembling by rubbing her lower back, by simply holding her, and murmured into her hair, "You always got me. I'd give you my heart if it meant to save your life."

'_You don't mean that Danny….you can't mean that…'_

But Sam didn't say it out loud. She knew that's not what he meant, but she couldn't handle facing the truth she knew wouldn't come true in her lifetime. No matter what was going on, he would always love her like Tucker did, as a friend, a sister.

Never the way she wanted.

The mere suffocating thought was enough to cause a breakdown, increasing tenfold at his concerned gestures, and Sam buried her face deeper into his chest, willing her awful emotions to once again be purged by her indifference to the outside world. Little did she know that the strain she was creating did cause a small effect of blushing. Not entirely unwanted.

When he had gently kissed the top of her head she had cringed.

But why? Had he gone too far? Didn't she think of him as he did about her? Didn't she know the effect of her smile on a rainy day, that when she smiled she became the glowing piece of sunshine outshining everything and everyone else? Didn't she know that he couldn't go to sleep unless he heard her reassuring throaty voice on the other end of the telephone line?

Her loosened jet black hair shadowed over her face when she looked away, Danny swervedher faceback to level his, hoping she wouldn't recoil when he woulddelve himself into a big mistake.

But it was a mistake well worth experiencing again.

Her tender rouged lips pursed against his as Danny lightly converged them. His thumb stroked the curve of her ear, the heel of her palm applied pressure to the space behind his. Somewhere in the fog in his head he was very thankful to know she was kissing him back.

Sam unfortunately pulled away from the mouth-bruising kiss to protest calmly, "I'm diseased."

"You're beautiful," he stated matter-of-factly. Even Danny was surprised by the confidence in his voice. Her straight eyebrows lowered in confusion, "This is ridiculous! You don't like me."

"Why don't you let me decide for myself? Sam, you're not some hideous monster, you're smart, beautiful, funny, and I love being around you. You're my best friend."

"That's exactly my point!" She snapped frustrated, fists clenching, "I'm your best friend, _not _your girlfriend. I'm not like...Paulina or Valerie--!"

"That's exactly _my _point, why are you comparing yourself to them? You're the first girl I kissed, even if it was forced, I never said I didn't like it."

Sam fingered the bridge of her nose after letting out an infuriated grunt, "You're willing to throw away our friendship because you liked it when I kissed you?"

Danny countered knowingly, "You wouldn't?"

She didn't have a rebuttal for that one. She wouldn't lie to him either.

"I'm not saying we should stop being friends and start dating. But I do like you," a lovely stripe of red appeared on his neck as he admitted his, "and I...I don't know how I'm going to handle seeing you with another guy." Sam retorted, a faint smile creasing the corners of her face, "Great, another Gregor situation on our hands." A mutual chuckle was shared at this. In the midst of this sudden delirium, Danny broke it by asking when the operation was.

"They said as soon as possible."

"We can go tomorrow if you want."

Sam nodded in a silent agreement, already tapping into her memory for the doctor's phone number.

"When you wake up I'll be sure to get you a nice stuffed pink rabbit."

She gave him her infamous _are-you-kidding-me_ Look. Danny grinned, laughing.

"Alright, a nice stuffed black bat."

Sam gripped her pillow to her chest, not bothering to hide her smile, "You damn right."

**_--DS--_**

Sam saw him to the door, the ground and tree was slicked with rain. Not wanting to risk a broken neck, Danny followed her outside. Right under the porch light, on the front mat, he turned around from looking out at the lawn and clasped a large hand behind her neck to give her a quick chaste kiss. She beat him in the arm for getting fresh but secretly her heart did cheers and flips worthy of any pep squad.

Her skin crawled with sensations of heavenly heat hardly felt before when intimacy passed between them.

He told her sternly, running an anxious hand through spikes, ice blue flashing, "You're going to be okay Sam. I'll call you tomorrow."

She reminded him dully, the light from the porch creating shadows under her eyes, "There's a chance your marrow could get rejected by mine."

"Now that wouldn't surprise me."

How he worked the nerve to turn a serious subject lighter was beyond her. It was admirable. Maybe because he had so much faith that she would be okay. For her own sake, she welcomed it. Getting annoyed at him distracted away the welling of depression and utter fear. Sam watched from the shelter of her home as he blended into the night, invisible wind and rain plowing into him. He'd better not catch a cold she thought to herself absently, crossing her arms unconsciously.

She would be okay, if they could share chicken pox, they could share bone marrow. They caught it early, the transplant would be successful, and she would wake up right after to see Danny and Tucker drooling over the armrests in the chairs nearest to her bed.

Then maybe she and Danny could……

Sam sighed, a cloud of frost escaping her.

He was right. Maybe she did need a few smacks in the head. After all, Sam Manson didn't really need to ask Danny for the favor back. Or to save her life. All this time, he had been repaying his debt to her. And he didn't ask for anything in return. How could he be so selfless? Would he be this way to his future wife?

A war raged inside her, hope, doubt pushed and pulled every fiber of her being.

'_Lucky woman………'_


	2. 2

_Be With You_

_Upon request by……practically everybody, this has officially become a one-shot turned two-shot. This is dedicated for everyone who requested it and who reviewed, you rock majorly, and I appreciate your enthusiasm. I only hope I could top the last chapter, well, you tell me what'cha think._

_Disclaimer: DP belongs to Butch Hartman. So yeah._

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"I wish I could hold your hand or something."

"Just hold it up, I can see it."

Feebly, the boy in the white shirt and blue jeans waved his right hand, fingers flexed, behind the glass at her bed stricken form, "Sam, you're the bravest person I know."

She made a face despite the total weakness spreading rapidly in her system, "If you get mushy on me Fenton I'm throwing my bedpan at you." Even with his absolutely shaken nerves, Danny cracked a smile. It wasn't the needles or operation that had him jittery, he went through the procedure without a compliant, it was seeing her so pasty and lost in an ocean of white sterile sheets. Did they intentionally put her in a big bed to have the piles of useless sheets swallow her naturally petite body up? He had seen her in the hospital gown; she was so thin it looked as if if someone had seized her arm, it would have inadvertently broken it into two.

Lacing her bony fingers, Sam kicked her feet free of the tangle, "Well, I've got an hour before sleepy time. Any last requests?"

His whole attitude darkened, "Sam…..don't…"

Facial expression still nonchalant, she replied, staring up at him with a vulnerable unmade-up face, "Didn't you hear me the first time? I told you, stop hanging onto a false hope that everything is going to be alright. The transplant might not work, I might not live tomorrow."

After the last sentence was spoken, the flat of his hands slammed into the thick glass angrily, it only quivered in response to his feat.

"What is your problem? _How _can you think like that!"

Normally, Sam's hot headed temper would come into a play with a verbal fight but recent events seemed to have deflated the hot air and she admitted openly with an intended sneer, "I'm terrified Danny. I'm terrified that if not tomorrow then in a week I won't wake up. That I won't see my parent's faces again, even if they don't understand me I love them regardless, they got me this far and so did you," her haunting sneer dulled, "You call me brave--"

"You are."

The young girl shook her head neglectfully at his gripe, he insisted, breathing heavier in effort to keep his voice from cracking, "You have to be to do this. I know you want to live Sam, but the way you act makes me want to second guess myself."

Danny leaned against the pane, bright blue indulgent with sobriety, "Sam……tell me you want to live, I need to hear it from you…."

With a shuddering breath, she covered her mouth with a hand, the curl of jet black bangs shielding her dampening eyes from his visual. At the echo of her nickname, softened with a plea only Danny could make without shame, her hand shifted to cup the side of her face. Something glistening trickled down her jaw line,"_I don't care anymore."_

_**--DS--**_

**One week earlier…**

"Tucker, pick a channel and stick with it before I chuck my fruit salad at your fat head."

Both boys in the cozy one-person hospital room glanced at Sam's food tray. Danny commented, picking up the small foam cup with the small drying wedges of melon, "This doesn't look very lethal."

Sam folded her thin arms stubbornly, "I'll think of something."

Their other best friend stuck out his tongue in a very teasing child-like manner and found a program "_Awesome! My favorite show!"_ ogling starry-eyed at the television screen as pictures of monster trucks crushed metal with much tougher dent-proof metal. That left the pair to amuse themselves. As Danny settled his heelson Sam's bed and rocked back on the legs of his chair, she informed the only person listening, "Better get use to it, tomorrow they're kicking out all guests."

At his confused expression, lovable too she thought to herself, Sam added as an afterthought, "They're putting me in a germ-free room to get ready for the operation."

"So this is the last day we get to see you?"

"Oh, you can still see me; you just can't be in the same room as me."

Danny nodded to signal his understanding, Sam looked past him to glare heatedly at the back of Tucker's beret, "Tucker, I would appreciate it if you'd turn that damn thing off; it's giving me a headache."

Strangely obedient that day, he switched off the sound to the monitor and parked himself at the end of her bed to gaze shrewdly between them. They could almost see the wheels revolving within the confines of the geek's head. Tucker beamed in a supposedly harmless approach, "So…Danny, I heard that you visit Sam's house late a few nights back."

"How did you…..?"

Penetrating blue peered over at his best friend who took a sudden interest in the color of her fingernails. He caught himself to ask tonelessly, "What about it?"

Tucker's curiosity seemed to be fueled by their concealed discomfort, "Anything happen? What did I miss?"

The first three seconds that passed were oddly blank before Sam shrugged calmly, "Not much," followed immediately by Danny who managed to choke out, "It rained….outside."

"So what, no fake out make outs?"

An ugly red flourished over the ghost boy's face, Sam snapped dryly, keeping firm eye contact on the bed of her nails, "Tucker, just watch your show."

He wickedly grinned and happily turned around to un-mute the TV monitor, his attention once again consumed thoughtlessly. Aggravated, she rubbed the skin around her eye with a slim finger. The no-longer blushing boy caught the exasperated behavior and questioned, "Do you want me to get you something Sam?"

"A muzzle and a cage for Meatboy….maybe some ibuprofen."

Danny reached for the red call button and she grabbed his wrist in a rather quick motion, "No don't bother, I'm not allowed." It took a moment for her to realize that he was eyeing the clench she had on him and how much he must have hated to feel her papery flesh. She was well aware of how she must have looked, gaunt, pale, and downright repulsive. She never really cared how she looked around other people, her nonconformist side knew that, but…Danny wasn't other people. He sorta….made her want to look better. Not like some cancer patient.

"You okay?"

Disappointed, her cool fingers retracted from their source of heat.

"Fine."

-

Tucker went home around six, everyone was fairly aware of how he still feared hospitals, and it was summer after all. No one was willing enough to stay in a creepy smelly hospital for all hours of the day.

Well…almost no one.

Icy blue flicked up to the oversized clock above the hospital bed drearily, he suppressed an unintelligible yawn to which his best friend frowned dimly at, "You should go home. Besides the night nurse will be here any minute and she's gonna kick you out."

"My ride doesn't come until a half an hour anyway," He stretched his arms over his head, popping a few achy joints. Sam returned the yawn, sitting on the edge of the mattress directly across from him and curled her bare feet up. The lone window in the room full of twilight, obscurity enveloped everything save where they resided. She moved around uncomfortably, rolling her shoulders, "I hate this gown."

As if on cue, her left shoulder slipped free of the gown's grasp to allure Danny's observance with its flawless white curve.

_"Yeah…_yeah, I hate it too."

Sam coughed on her bottle of water she had been sipping, blinking amused, "Excuse me?"

Bright red burning him with embarrassment, he gestured wildly, a little too wildly thus only provoking her to coyly raise her eyebrows. Danny invaded her personal space by scooting his chair closer and fixing the sleeve of the gown himself. Her spine stiffened when a light fingertip strayed over her exposed skin and stayed there to blaze even after contact was lost. He didn't quite pull away and quietly glanced up at her dumbfounded stare, he didn't become aware of his actions until one of her slender hands pushed into his chest, they had almost been nose to nose and he was dangerously close to sealing the boundaries in between them.

Familiar violet, from his dreams, from childhood, darted rapidly left to right, "What are you doing?"

"I don't know."

Something in the way he said it confessed honesty…maybe a little too much. But there was _something _in the way the illumination from the lamp at the headboard clung to her dark lashes, and it might have been his imagination but he could have sworn she was smirking just the tiniest bit.

Sam tilted her head aside to let him have more access as their lips touched, the deep warmth, the affection from his kiss drowning the bitter colddecaying inside her senses. How this was happening, why this was happening, explanations could be damned. Along with pride. Nothing mattered, absolutely nothing but Danny's heartbeat against hers.

With an intensity that was not anticipated by either of them, she wrapped her delicate arms around his neck to kiss him back with the earnestly she had been holding back for so many years. Surprised, Danny's weight fell forward and his hands landed on the bedspread to steady himself. Her arms slid away from his neck, coming to rest at her sides. Still leaning over her, right in the middle, nearness was broken much to the boy's discontent. She panted, keeping a firm clasp on his shirt collar, "Danny, I have to tell you…"

He held back these new urges to kiss spaces on her face unexplored, her neck, the tips of her pinkened ears by biting down on his lips when she glanced upwards in a state of artless sincerity, throat raspy, "Danny….I…"

Bright white light poured from an unnamed source, blinding both teenagers when they jerkily gazed at it. A disembodied voice declared, "Time to go Prince Charming, your parents are waiting for you. You can see your girlfriend tomorrow during visiting hours."

Almost automatically, they opened their mouths.

"He's not my….."

"She's not my….."

The unfinished sentences hung in the air. The disembodied voice now associated to the chunky outline in the doorway threatened sternly, "Ms. Manson…"

Sam growled annoyed, gritting her teeth, "I got it, can you give the sick girl a minute?" With a free hand, she managed to unkindly shove him away and mumble an apology when he stumbled, turning her back to them and hiding herself beneath her blankets.

Someone up there…._really _hated her.

**End Flashback.**

_**--DS--**_

Turmoil became too great to ignore. With a furious roar, an earsplitting crush, several fragile items took a nasty tumble onto the basement floor of FentonWorks. Footsteps were heard right above it, pounding down the staircase in time to watch as the single occupant smashed his large fists on the table, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Jazz winced as she daintily stepped on a shattered beaker, coming forward to take her enraged brother's shoulder in a motion of succor, "Danny."

The boy, looking particularly beaten up and scratched not only on his body but visibly in the condition of his clothes whirled around, stance rigid as if he was expecting to fight someone, instead slumped back into the now cleared workstation. Noisy breathes wrung between his parted lips.

With a heavy thump, Danny fell to the floor, mumbling into his nicked hands. She heard one word unmistakably.

_Sorry._

A wash of protectiveness prevented her from getting angry at his rage-filled carelessness and his red-headed big sister stroked his hair, numbly, he accepted her concern.

"They won't even let me see her."

Jazz offered in a whisper, "Sam's parents probably don't want to get her upset when she's recovering." She absentmindedly examined a developing bruise on the side of his scratched face, probably from a recent fight with a ghost, his unreleased fury becoming unstoppable when he took it out on objects in the lab.

Her little brother's face screwed up into an unpleasant glower, not meant for her, "Sam's my best friend, I gave her the marrow, the least her parents could do is tell me if my best friend is alive. That's all I fuc--"

"_Danny_!"

He ignored her screech of a scolding defensively, "I just want to know. That's all I want."

Jazz frowned sympathetically, some people. Danny was right, after all he did the Manson's could at least let him in on her progress instead of shunning him from their lives. Times was beginning to border on the line of almost a month now. If Sam was awake, chances were she was probably too weak to do anything out of bed, she would have found a way to reach him. Unless they were purposely keeping the subject away from her friends.

Mouth set in a straight red line, she hoisted him up by the arm, "C'mon, I think it's time we make a phone call."

"What if they don't answer?" Her brother could already see where this was going.

She released an unusually malicious smile, "Oh believe me, they'll be answering to somebody."

-

_"Hey…Sam?"_

_Amethyst widened at the small uncertain voice coming from her left. Nearby, clutching the railing of the swing set, a boy with spiky black hair glanced at her reluctantly. _

_She knew him...the boy who asked for her lollipop. Nicely she might add. She couldn't remember why she let him though, maybe because he was the one boy who smelled good when she had to share her sleeping rug with him during naptime. Plus he didn't shove bugs in her face like that boy with the glasses and weird red hat._

_Using a sweet haughty accent, Sam said, "Hi Danny. Whadda want?" Her little legs pumped slightly so that she was swinging back and forth during their conversation._

_Young Danny shuffled his feet, incoherent words coming from his closing mouth._

_Sam swung higher, calling out, "I can't hear you! Talk louder!"_

_His little face flushed with a mixture of mortification and exertion._

_"I said, thank you!"_

_With a cloud of dirt, the little girl gasped and came to an abrupt halt. Her black Mary Jane's caked with mud, Sam rose from the swing seat, "Did you just say thank you?"_

_He replied crossly, "Yeah, you wanna make something out of it?" When he puffed out his chest to look more intimidating, Sam held back her hysterics. This boy was just too funny…and kind of goofy looking too._

_"Well, since I gave you something you have to give me back a favor."_

_Danny narrowed his tiny ice blue eyes, "A favor?"_

_She nodded, "Yep. I'll tell you when you paid it back though." With another nod signaling the conversation was over, Sam sat back down on her swing domineeringly. He joined her on the other swing, challenging her to a contest. __Drowsy heat encircled the playground._

-

Several lone strangers walked the up and down gravel path past the hill in Amity Park, giving the shadow underneath one of the park's oversized trees the once-over before going on their apathetic way.

It had been nicknamed 'Green-Skin Hill' from elementry school. Once you were done skidding down the hill with your bare knees, the fresh lush grass would stain your skin for weeks.

To have those happy-go-lucky days back…before shots…before testing….

The shadow adjusted her faux-leather coat around her front, clasping the ends together when a cold breeze pushed it off her shoulders. She was still too tiny.

Her life had been put on standby every hour in that hospital miles away from home, now back in Amity Park, everything seemed newer, the leaves were shiner, faces were pinker. They were envy worthy, the vitality surging through their bones, she could almost see the fresh strong blood seeping their veins, maintaining life.

Her marrow failed, it needed help, and now Danny's marrow was inside her. And it was working. The doctors told her there was a chance of rejection, always be prepared for complications, but somehow they were functioning together. His marrow would not give in without a fight.

A quiet smile twitched her mouth as the Manson girl shifted her scarf to cover her mouth, the corners of her eyes crinkling when the smile broadened.

Danny would always fight.

She fixed her arms closely to herself, crossing them comfortably underneath her zipped jacket and leaned with one elbow jutting out on the bark to balance. When another gust of wind blew, her scarf flew away into the distance, the gust hit her back and she moved forward slightly only to be helped back into her original position with the aid of two warm arms enfolding around the only area open to grab.

Tremors of delight went up through her spine in currents at the weight of his secure hands touching her waist.

There was only one person who could do that to her. One of her hands freed themselves from confinement to reach up and get a handful of soft black. She murmured, not turning around in this safe hug, "Thank you by the way." Her best friend stayed silent as Sam inserted gratefully, "For everything you've done."

"I love you Sam, I don't expect anything back."

His firm arms tightened kindly, reminding her of his place in her heart, and did not go on with a further explanation, nor recognizing their friendship. Silence would hold them in their dream world of what they wanted so dearly. With the failing dying autumn painting their scenery, she let go of all self-conscious feelings to fall back, her slim body grazing against his chest.

His kiss burned tenderly into her neck.

"I love you too Danny."

**End.**


End file.
